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Negotiators' Defense of Rights Source of Pride

President Hassan Rouhani said efforts by the negotiating team to defend the right to nuclear energy are “a source of national pride”.
“The commanders of Iran’s diplomacy are fighting in the battlefield of negotiations to defend the country’s interests, just like the brave commanders did during the (Iran-Iraq) war,” Rouhani said in his speech at a ceremony to mark National Martyr’s Day in Tehran on Monday.
Noting that the country was forced into the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war to stand up to aggression and the aggressor, he said, “We did not attack first and did not want to (invade) and conquer a country or occupy a city,” IRNA reported.
Even now that Iran is much more powerful, it is not seeking to get involved in a war “because we are not after aggression,” Rouhani stressed, adding, “We will do everything in our power to defend our land, independence and dignity.”
He criticized the United States and some European countries for supporting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and providing his regime with chemical weapons and missiles during the imposed war, adding that other countries, even those which had committed themselves to helping Iran, withheld their support.